One Shoe In the Road: Struck Cyclists and Their Stories

Summary:

struck cyclists talk, with original score by survivors

Tones:

Edgy, NPR NewsMagazine-y, Raw

Language:

English

Description:

     Have you ever pulled up to a busy street on a bike, been waved across by a waiting truck driver, only to be creamed by a speeding car just as you pass the hulking semi into supposed safety? Have you ever been biking blissfully down a quiet neighborhood hill with friends, when suddenly out of nowhere a van gunning its engine, hurtling down the sleepy street mercilessly plows into you and two of your companions from behind, killing them and severely mangling you? Have you ever looked both ways and carefully started across an intersection, only to be blindsided by a driver babbling on their phone, ignoring the stop sign, sending you tumbling under the vehicle "like a pile of laundry" with the car wheels crushing your neck and pelvis? Have you ever seen the underside of a car as it continues after hitting you, with the wreckage of your bike sending out a shower of sparks as the vehicle drags you both down the street?
     These are just glimpses of the stories presented in One Shoe In the Road: Struck Cyclists and Their Stories, a one hour radio show put together by Erin Yanke and Don Godwin. It features stories of several cyclists from New Orleans, Louisiana and Portland, Oregon recorded in 2004, and edited together at KBOO in Portland. It is a very intense and graphic mix of intimate recollections, put together with the hope that car commuters will stumble across the program on their radio as they move through the streets, and start to consider the experiences of those who operate outside of the isolating confinements of the vehicle.

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